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Electronic Dictionaries

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13 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
taKen
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
mindofthelinguist.woRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5876 days ago

176 posts - 210 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Dutch, French
Studies: German, Icelandic

 
 Message 1 of 13
19 July 2008 at 2:27pm | IP Logged 
Hey,

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with Electronic Dictionaries. It would be great to have a a pocket-sized digital device which I could look up words in French on-the-go wherever I may be.

Here's an example: http://www.ectaco.com/All-Non-Talking-Electronic-Dictionarie s-items/

But are they any good?

Ragnar
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tricoteuse
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Norway
littlang.blogspot.co
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745 posts - 845 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French
Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian

 
 Message 2 of 13
19 July 2008 at 3:59pm | IP Logged 
I bought one of those things from Ectaco (I think it was a talking one) that was complete crap. A piece of plastic with 10 errors that was completely useless, and I only got a fraction of the money back for it. So I wouldn't recommend Ectaco. The C-Pen that I bought 5 or 6 years ago was excellent though, although very simple.
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Alvinho
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
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Speaks: Portuguese*, English, Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 13
19 July 2008 at 11:13pm | IP Logged 
I do like the following ones:

www.rae.es

www.dictionary.cambridge.org

Edited by Alvinho on 19 July 2008 at 11:14pm

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taKen
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Norway
mindofthelinguist.woRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5876 days ago

176 posts - 210 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Dutch, French
Studies: German, Icelandic

 
 Message 5 of 13
20 July 2008 at 4:54am | IP Logged 
Alvinho wrote:
I do like the following ones:

www.rae.es

www.dictionary.cambridge.org


I'm sorry but we're talking about Digital Dictionaries, i.e. devices that contain dictionaries which can be fitted into your pocket. I find myself often in situation where I could really use a French -> Norwegian or French -> English dictionary, but when I'm travelling such a big tome wouldn't be very practical. Thus I would like a digital device, which I could use by just tapping in the word and searcing for its English/Norwegian equivalent.
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hobbitofny
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5992 days ago

280 posts - 408 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 6 of 13
20 July 2008 at 11:56am | IP Logged 
Ectaco makes a good but high cost pocket dictionary with audio phrase book. I have used it for two years. The down side is finding the correct word going from English to Russian. It will give many words, but no clue which fits my needed meaning.

I wanted Ice Cream with nuts. I order Ice Cream with the nut used to hold a tire on a car. I got a very odd look for the waiter after saying it. My Russian friends started laughing. So I also carry a pocket print dictionary in my suit pocket.

The electronic dictionary is a great tool, but not perfect.
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kris777
Newbie
United States
Joined 5730 days ago

1 posts - 1 votes

 
 Message 7 of 13
20 July 2008 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
I just got the XL-1500 as a present from my wife and I have to say that I was very impressed. I already had another model from Ectaco for France but since we were planning to visit several countries she decided we should have this 15 language version. We are going on a grand tour through Europe for our honeymoon and I cannot wait to try it out in real life situations. It's incredible how much information is in this little machine and I can't believe how easy it is to use. It works just as well as the other one I had and we have already learned some phrases that we will need when we arrive in each country. We tried it out at this little Spanish restaurant near our house and it worked so well! The waiter was surprised at first because we pretended not to speak English and we surprised him after! We got everything we wanted plus a big smile!
This model available on sale just for $159.95 now
http://www.ectacodeal.com/ECTACO-XL1500/


Edited by kris777 on 20 July 2008 at 8:46pm

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Eduard
Decaglot
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5784 days ago

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Speaks: Dutch*, NorwegianC1, Swedish, Danish, English, German, ItalianB1, Spanish, Serbo-Croatian, French
Studies: Portuguese

 
 Message 8 of 13
21 July 2008 at 3:16am | IP Logged 
I wonder if one would be best off using some kind of portable pc, palmtop or windows-enabled advanced mobile phone for this purpose. Then one could install dictionary software on this machine and use it instead. It's probably more difficult to use but on the other hand one would have 'proper and complete' dictionaries at hand. Additional costs are also a disadvantage, unless one already owns dictionaries on cd-rom already. It might be worth considering.


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